Archives

Post navigation

Please read

There are posts which are difficult to write because it’s hard, because no matter how you look at it, it’s pure hopelessness. So immense that it leaves you with a sense of emptiness in which one can hear only the sound of fingers hitting the keyboard. Don’t worry, this is not one of those posts.
Please open it, instead of scrolling past it. Please read it. Because this is why we and our friends got involved in all this in the first place.
It’s a post about you, about hopelessness, and about a miracle.In July I wrote about Natasha. It’s rare for a post about aid for specific person in need to elicit such interest. I got responses from many people wishing to help this woman. The blog has not had this many readers in a long time. Thanks to that, we were able to help Natasha. I wrote “woman”, but she’s really a girl. She’s 34 but she’s gone through enough to suffice for several lifetimes.
Natasha’s husband joined the militia in the first days of war. He was killed. Their house was ruined by shelling. She and three kids were allowed to live in a friends’ house which is in need of repair. She has epilepsy and after the war started the attacks became more frequent so that she lost job after job and can’t find work anymore. With all that, Natasha had a huge lump form on her head. She had it drained and a plate installed, for which they had to collect money.
When Natasha came back from the hospital where she was told she needed surgery, “she laid down to die, since there’s no money.” But the money was collected, even though it meant debt. In recent times, Natasha was constantly in debt, since she had to borrow everywhere–in the shops, at the neighbors’, everywhere. No work, so no money…

But first things first. She recently got back the results of her histology and…it’s negative!!! Natasha also received an official disability status, which means extra 2100 rubles a month.
In September she will undergo additional tests and be assigned a course of treatment accordingly.

And thanks to you, she’s no longer indebted!!!! To the neighbors, or to the shops were she bought food on credit. Most importantly, we are continuing to help and will provide medications and necessary treatment.
On the photos Natasha is shown with the money, but it wasn’t quite like that. Lena and Natasha distributed the money together. I don’t know how to express this. We don’t mention them because we were asked not to. But nearly everyone showed understanding in the situation, nobody was trying to hurry her, they understood her situation. In an enlightened, humane fashion. You might say it’s a normal human reaction, to which I’d respond–no. Unfortunately, people in such situations often behave terribly. Sometimes relatives abandon one another. How many times have I written about abandoned children, parents?
But I’ll say this: people in LPR are of a special sort.

The life there’s different, which is difficult to convey. One can feel it in the air. The sense of people who lived through a war, bombardments. It’s all real there. Although all kinds of things happen, what can I say.
But people there do know what misfortune is.
They don’t get excited over trivia like we do. And they are unbelievably responsive, due to their clear understanding of suffering.
I also want to say something about people who responded to the Natasha post.
Most people who wrote back are not very rich. I received many transfers for 200, 300, 500 rubles.
People were asking to wait until their “pension” arrived. They wrote from various cities.
I love you all! Thank you all for being there!
Labarum!!!!!

Friends, readers, subscribers–thank you for helping Natasha.
She called us 10 times, unaware and uncomprehending of what was happening, and thanked us. Zhenya says it was, naturally, shock and disbelief something like that could happen.
Natasha herself dreams of only one thing: being able to work again. “Please help find me work, even as a janitor, I’ll take any job!”
We don’t know how to help with that, since she can’t bend, overheat, lift heavy weights, avoid stress, and has many other limitations.
I’m read by many people in Lugansk–perhaps someone has an idea of where Natasha could be useful?